The Dar es Salaam Seascape: A Case Study of an Environmental Management ‘Hotspot’

Abstract

Abstract-The Dar es Salaam seascape contains a variety of interacting coastal and marine ecosystems that support diverse resources, upon which human life has depended for centuries. This paper applies the UNEP Human-Environment Interaction Analytical Approach to examine the changes that have taken place in this seascape over the past few decades. The main drivers of change have been rapid population growth, poverty and inadequate education, together with global climate change. The main pressures have been destructive fishing practices, mangrove harvesting, overfishing, tourism infrastructure and polluting emissions. These pressures have resulted in substantial negative environmental state changes, e.g., habitat loss and degradation, biodiversity loss and disturbance of food webs, and coastal erosion/accretion. Thus, the Dar es Salaam seascape has become an environmental "hotspot" of degradation, with consequent negative impacts on human well-being such as loss of livelihoods and reduction in the availability of food, building materials and firewood.Since the early 1990s, responses or interventions by government bodies, NGOs and integrated coastal management programmes, operating at the national level and at localized levels, have targeted only limited areas of the seascape. Despite these management efforts, there are many critical outstanding and emerging issues that remain unresolved. The paper concludes that it is not effective to manage the seascape in a "piecemeal" fashion and recommends that an integrated coastal management programme should be established to cover the entire Dar es Salaam seascape.

Effect of nutrient enrichment on seagrass associated meiofauna in Tanzania

“…The Dar es Salaam city sewage dumps raw sewage into the shallow subtidal ocean through a pipe at Ocean Road beach that is located near the city centre (Wagner, 2007). From previous studies nutrient levels (nitrate, nitrite and phosphate), have been found to be significantly higher near this discharge point at Ocean road than in other sites studied (Hamisi et al, 2004).…”

Integrated Assessment of Coastal Exposure and Social Vulnerability to Coastal Hazards in East Africa

“…The creation of marine reserves can help the conservation of habitats (Samoilys et al 2015) and poverty alleviation (Wells et al 2007). Poverty has been identified as a cause of ecosystems degradation (Wagner 2008;UNEP-Nairobi Convention and WIOMSA 2015). However, a bottom-up approach integrating local communities is necessary for ecosystem-based management to be effective (e.g.…”

“…These coastal areas are likely to see a faster and greater increase in population as people seek job opportunities and better living conditions (Neumann et al 2015). The combination of rapid population growth and poor planning of new coastal developments leads to important socioeconomic and environmental changes, often compromising the preservation of coastal ecosystems (Wagner 2008) and disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable people, who depend the most on ecosystem services (Samoilys et al 2015).…”